Culinary excellence

Culinary excellence has won five Gloucester High School students and their instructor a trip to Kansas this spring. The GHS team of student chefs took first place in the 8th annual Virginia ProStart Student Invitational event held March 4 and 5 at the University of Mary Washington. Now headed to the national ProStart cooking competition are, above from left, GHS culinary arts instructor chef Tony Riva and his students Jonathan Endicott, Kira Parkin, Austin Farina, Kayleigh West and Denton Brandy Jr. The students whipped up their winning dish, Chicken Chesapeake, accompanied by an appetizer of butterfly shrimp with bacon and white cheddar cheese, and a lime cheesecake cannoli dessert, at left. The dish also won the students scholarships to several culinary arts schools.